Minor Hindu children prevented from visiting temples and coerced for religious conversion by Christian missionaries at child shelter home
Katni, Madhya Pradesh, India 
28 May, 2023
Case Summary
In Jhinjhari, Madhya Pradesh, minor Hindu children were forced to recite Christian prayers, prevented from visiting temples and coerced into Christian conversion at Asha Kiran Home, an orphanage/child shelter home. One of the victims, a 19-year-old Dalit Hindu man named Abhishek Khateek, who at the time of the incident was a minor, filed a petition before the Supreme Court of India seeking to be made a party in the ongoing batch of cases concerning religious conversions in the country. Khateek stated that he was a victim of coercive and fraudulent religious conversion at Asha Kiran Home, where he had been placed under the care of the shelter. During his stay, he was compelled to participate in Christian prayers, prevented from visiting Hindu temples, and subjected to continuous psychological and religious coercion with the intention of converting him to Christianity. The petition was filed through advocate Ashwani Dubey, submitted that this application arises out of an FIR filed on 29 May 2023, at the police station in Madhav Nagar, Katni, Madhya Pradesh, following a surprise inspection conducted by Priyank Kanoongo, then Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, at Asha Kiran Home, Jhinjhari. The inspection revealed serious violations of child protection norms and multiple instances of coercive religious conversion within the institution. Statements recorded from four children, including Khateek, corroborated these findings, confirming that Hindu children were being indoctrinated into Christianity against their will. The victim, belonging to a Scheduled Caste Hindu community, presented his case as a direct instance of the abuse that anti-conversion legislations sought to address. He emphasised that his inclusion in the proceedings was not to widen the controversy but to present a first-hand perspective of a victim whose rights these laws were designed to safeguard. His plea came amidst a broader legal battle over the validity of anti-conversion laws enacted by several Indian states, including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh.
Why it is Hate Crime ?
This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category of - Predatory Proselytisation. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Harassment, threats, coercion for conversion. Harassment covers a wide range of behaviours of an offensive nature. It is commonly understood as behaviour that demeans, humiliates, and intimidates a person, including threats and coercion. Harassment and threats, in this case, find their root on discriminatory grounds which has the effect of nullifying a person’s rights or infringing upon his freedom to exercise his right specifically owing to the victim’s religious identity. Verbal and physical threats and psychological or physical harassment are often used against Hindu victims because they choose to practice their professed religion. Religious harassment also includes forced and involuntary conversions by harassment, threats or coercion. Coercion includes intimidatory tactics like force-feeding a Hindu victim beef to convert to another religion, forceful circumcision etc. In several cases documented, non-Hindu perpetrators or those who harbour specific animosity towards Hinduism, harass victims simply based on their religious identity. Such cases often also include harassment to ensure the Hindu victim abandons his/her professed religion and adopts the religion of the perpetrator. Such cases where Hindu victims are harassed to convert to the perpetrator’s religion are rooted in animosity towards the victim’s religious identity and are therefore documented as religiously motivated hate crimes. The other sub-category relevant here is - Proselytisation by grooming, brainwashing, manipulation or subtle indoctrination, with the tertiary category being - Pattern of targeting Hindus and Conversion of minor. Religious brainwashing essentially means the often subtle and forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up their religious beliefs to accept contrasting regimented ideas. Religious grooming or brainwashing also involves propaganda and manipulation. It involves the systematic effort, driven by religious malice and indoctrination, to persuade “non-believers’ to accept allegiance, command, or doctrine to and of a contrasting faith. Cases of such grooming or brainwashing are far more nuanced than direct threats, coercion, inducement and violence. In such cases, it is often seen that there is repeated, subtle and continual manipulation of the victim to induce disaffection towards their own faith and acceptance of the contrasting faith of the perpetrator. While subtle indoctrination is widely acknowledged as predatory, an element which is often understated in such conversions or the attempts of such conversion is the role of loyalty and trust which might develop between the perpetrator and the victim. Fiduciary relationships are often abused to affect such religious conversion. For example, an educator transmitting religious doctrine of a competing faith to a Hindu student. The Hindu student is likely to accept what the teacher is transmitting owing to existence of the fiduciary relationship. The exploitation of the fiduciary relationship to religiously indoctrinate victims would also be included in this category. Since the underlying animosity towards the victim’s faith forms the basis of predatory proselytization, such cases are considered religiously motivated hate crimes. The second primary category selected here is - Restriction/ban on Hindu practices. Within it, the sub-category selected is - Restriction on expression of Hindu identity. An example of the state-affected prejudicial and targeted orders against the Hindu community would be a government denying the right of a Hindu or a group of Hindus to hold a religious procession owing to the animosity of non-Hindu groups. Denial of the religious right of the Hindus to assuage the non-Hindu group which harbours animosity to a point where it could lead to violence against Hindus is not only a failure of law and order but is a prejudicial order against Hindus, denying them their fundamental rights to express their religious identity. An example of a hate crime against Hindus by a non-Hindu would be a non-Hindu institution forcing its Hindu employees to abandon religious symbols that a Hindu would wear as an expression of faith owing to inherent prejudice against the faith professed by the victim or a non-Hindu group of people restricting a Hindu group from constructing a place of worship simply because the demography of the area in which the temple is being built is dominated by non-Hindus. Such actions are driven by religious animosity and/or prejudice against Hindus and their faith and would therefore be categorized as a hate crime. This case has been added to the tracker because a Dalit Hindu man named Abhishek Khateek, along with others, was coerced into Christian conversion and was prevented from visiting temples at Asha Kiran Home. At the time of filing the FIR, 29 May 2023, the victim was a minor, and it is highly likely that all the victims were minors since the Asha Kiran Home was an orphanage/child shelter home. Firstly, since the victims were minors, the element of consent and genuine change of conscience was missing ab initio. Minors, due to their young age and lack of maturity, are particularly vulnerable to manipulation and coercion. They may not have the ability to fully understand the implications of converting to another religion, and the Christian perpetrator purposely targeted and exploited this vulnerability of the victim. Since this case exemplifies the use of coercion and manipulation to achieve religious conversion, it is a blatant act of religious hate, which is why it has been documented here in the hate tracker. Such acts are not merely criminal in nature; they are ideologically charged, revealing religious prejudice and a calculated intent to alter the religious identity of a minor without their volition. Secondly, the victim revealed that he was a victim of coercive and fraudulent religious conversion at Asha Kiran Home. Pressuring a Hindu individual to discard his religious faith and embrace another is a direct attack on his religious identity and dignity, especially when the victim is a minor. It is not a matter of personal choice; it is coercion rooted in hostility towards the victim's Hindu identity. Such an attempt reflects religious animosity because the act is not simply about personal differences but about erasing the victim’s Hindu faith, making it a religiously motivated crime. Thirdly, the victims were forced to participate in Christian prayers even though they were Hindus. Forcing Hindu children to participate in Christian prayers directly violates their freedom of religion and conscience, enshrined under Article 25 of the Indian Constitution. Such an act represents a form of religious domination where the victim’s faith is suppressed and replaced by an alien belief system through psychological pressure. The fact that the victims were minors makes it particularly egregious, since the children in an orphanage are especially vulnerable and dependent on their caregivers. Compelling Hindu victims to perform Christian prayers in an effort to alienate them from their faith amounts to indoctrination and brainwashing, with the intention of religious conversion. Fourth, the victims also revealed that they were prevented from visiting temples, which was a deliberate attempt to sever their emotional and spiritual connection with their faith. In Hinduism, temple worship is not merely a ritual practice but a central aspect of religious identity, community belonging, and personal devotion. By restricting access to temples, the perpetrators sought to isolate the minors from Hindu traditions, thereby weakening their cultural identity. Such actions were aimed at alienating the victims from their native faith to make subsequent conversion efforts easier and more permanent. This act, therefore, represents a calculated form of religious subversion which was rooted in prejudice against the Hindu faith. Such actions stem from inherent hostility towards the victim's professed faith since Abrahamic faiths believe that any non-adherent to the faith is subject to being dehumanised till they convert. Therefore, religious conversions, even of minors, are often seen as a badge of honour, totally disregarding the methods used to achieve it. Since such predatory actions stem from doctrinal animosity towards the Hindu faith and its adherents, this case is being documented as a religiously motivated hate crime. The Christian faith, by its very theological foundations, places a strong emphasis on proselytisation. In pursuit of conversion objectives, Christian evangelists often employ unethical means, ranging from psychological pressure to misinformation. This form of coercion strips Hindus of their agency and dignity and enforces forced conversions. These are not random or isolated incidents, but rather premeditated efforts to undermine the Hindu faith, persuade Hindus to discard their own faith, and convert to Christianity. Such acts were deeply rooted in religious animosity towards Hindu victims, and thus, this case was added to the tracker. Disclaimer: The Hinduphobia Tracker records incidents based on when an event occurred or when the victim's ordeal began. It is important to clarify that none of the media sources covering this case has specified the exact date when the victim's ordeal began. Therefore, for documentation purposes, we have recorded the date based on when the FIR was filed - 29 May 2023.
Victim Details
Total Victim
4
Deceased
0
Gender
- Male 1
- Female 0
- Third Gender 0
- Unknown 3
Caste
- SC/ST 1
- OBC 0
- General 0
- Unknown 3
Age Group
- Minor 4
- Adult 0
- Senior Citizen 0
- Unknown 0
Case Status
Complaint registered
Perpetrators Details
Perpetrators
Christian Extremists
Perpetrators Range
Unknown
Perpetrators Gender
unknown
Sources 
